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Data Set ID:

G01375

Glacier Inventory of West Greenland, Version 1

The inventory includes 5,297 Glaciers from west Greenland between 59 to 71 degrees latitude north and 43 to 53 degrees longitude west. The glacier data basin division is based on a simplified version of the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) system. Data are based on 1:250000 maps, Landsat imagery, and aerial photos that were taken between 1948 and 1985.

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Detailed Data Description

Data Fields

Glacier Identification: The glacier code is based on the division of the Greenland coast into hydrological basins. The continent and administrative unit, typically included in WGMS data base entries, are omitted from all ID numbers as in all cases they are GL 2U (for the administrative unit of Greenland and the continent of North America).

Latitude and Longitude: The geographic coordinates of the glacier. The location is defined as a point situated on the central line of movement in the ablation area. For the sectors of outlets of the Greenland ice sheet the coordinate point is placed in the ablation zone close to the margin so that redefinition of the total sector area will not influence the coordinates given.

Orientation: The orientation of the ablation area in the down glacier direction.

Maximum glacier elevation: The highest elevation of the glacier in decameter above sea level (a.s.l.). Data are taken from topographic maps and should be considered as estimates. For outlets of the Greenland ice sheet the maximum elevation is omitted and 1800 decameters a.s.l. is assumed as an upper limit of the measured glacier area.

Minimum glacier elevation: The lowest elevation of the glacier in decameters above sea level. This field is left blank if the glacier terminus is unmeasured because the glacier terminates in the sea.

Surface area: The surface area of the glacier in square kilometers. Areas were measured using a high resolution digitizer. For outlet glaciers from the Greenland ice sheet, measured areas are for the marginal areas under 1800 meters a.s.l.

Morphology code: A series of six codes describing various morphology characteristics of the glacier. The codes are described in the following tables.

Please note: A user discovered errors in this data set. The tables below describes the errors, their corrections, and the source of the error. Possible error sources include the publication titled "Glacier Inventory and Atlas of West Greenland" (Weidick et al. 1992), and the original data file distributed by NSIDC, titled glaciers.dat. An updated data file titled glaciers_08302004.dat, which includes all corrections, is available by FTP as of 21 September 2004.

Table 1: Glacier orientation errors in data

Glacier Identification Number

Glacier Orientation

Corrected Glacier Orientation

Source of Error

1GH03001

N

NE

glaciers.dat

1EA04011

MW

NW

Atlas*

* Glacier Inventory and Atlas of West Greenland

Table 2: Glacier elevation errors in data

Glacier Identification Number

Maximum and Minimum Glacier Elevations

Corrected Maximum and Minimum Glacier Elevations

Source of Error

1AG10037

195, 200

195, 20

Atlas

1GH03001

E100, 95

100, 95

glaciers.dat

1HB15008

100, 700

100, 70

Atlas

1HD07012

11, 80

110, 80

Atlas

1HD09004

1000, 80

100, 80

Atlas

1HE01006

95, 700

95, 70

Atlas

Glacier Identification Number

Maximum and Minimum Glacier Elevations

Corrected Maximum and Minimum Glacier Elevations

Source of Error

Table 3: Transposed maximum and minimum elevation errors in data

1AB05020

165, 180

180, 165

Atlas

1BK01003

160, 165

165, 160

Atlas

1CH38008

120, 165

165, 120

Atlas

1DG01005

110, 115

115, 110

Atlas

The following records in the Atlas publication appear to contain typographical errors in the latitude and/or the longitude. One user of this data set has suggested the following values as replacements. Please note that NSIDC did not change these values in the data file glaciers_08302004.dat.

Table 4: Potential errors in glacier latitude and longitude data

Glacier Identification Number

Potential Erroneous Latitude or Longitude

Suggested Value

Source of Error

1AA03003

33.45°W

44.75°W

Atlas

1AA27007

63.04°N

60.06°N

Atlas

1AD02018

55.58°W

44.96°W

Atlas

1CA03014

61.47°N

62.78°N

Atlas

1CH41002

64.12°W

51.10°W

Atlas

1DG29015

53.72°W

53.12°W

Atlas

1HB10017

59.43°N

69.71°N

Atlas

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Sharing your Data with NSIDC

The International Council of Scientific Unions, in Resolution 8 of its 22nd General Assembly, recommended that "...all ICSU members support the fundamental principle of open exchange of data and information for scientific purposes." In the spirit of this resolution, NSIDC/WDC for Glaciology, Boulder encourages users of data distributed online and in other forms by NSIDC/WDC for Glaciology, Boulder to consider contributing their own published data to NSIDC/WDC for Glaciology, Boulder archive.

If you have published data that you wish to archive and make available to the scientific community, please contact NSIDC User Services to initiate a discussion of the content, form and size of the data set. A list of guidelines for submitting data in electronic form is available.